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Monday, November 16, 2009 would have been my best friend, Lilly Aramburo’s 26 birthday. Lily has been missing since June 2, 2007. Her plight has been featured on Nancy Grace and Americas Most Wanted.

Lily disappeared from the apartment of her heroin addicted boyfriend in the Dadeland area. Since then, her mother Lucely and I have launched an exhaustive search for her only to become disillusioned and extremely frustrated with the lack of effort of the Miami Dade Police Department.

Police failed to locate two witnesses that were present the night she disappeared. We’ve been working with private investigator Joe Carrillo and his team for over a year locating the two witnesses within days. A convicted killer has been identified by the investigators as a person of interest in her disappearance. After four meetings with the missing persons detectives, a convicted killer who served time for murder has yet to be interviewed even though identified and located by the private investigator. Why? Police refuse to answer the why.

Lily’s mother and I desperately need to bring attention to her disappearance and want answers from the Miami Dade Police Department. We’re both commencing a hunger strike Monday at 9:00 AM in front of the Miami Dade Government Center until we get answers.

Location: Government Center
111 NW 1 Street
Miami, Fl.

We’d like to thank all of you for supporting us in our fight to find Lily and for keeping Lily in your hearts and minds. PLEASE do not stop passing on this blog to all you know! You can also help support the search for Lily by donating to Lily’s reward fund or by purchasing a T-Shirt.

Anyone with information pertaining to the disappearance of Lily Aramburo is urged to contact Private Investigator Joe Carrillo at 305-926-3110 or call Miami Dade Police at 305-418-7200.

A bank account has been set up for the family in the name of Somer Thompson. Anyone interested in assisting the family with expenses related to Somer’s death can do so at any area Vystar Credit Union. The account number is 0702794000.

An Amber Alert was issued today for a missing 7 year old Florida girl, Somer Thompson. (pictured below)

Second grader Somer Renee Thompson did not return from her Clay County school on Monday afternoon. She lives in the Grove Park neighborhood and was seen a few block from her home at about 2:45 p.m., according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

In a news release issued about the girl’s disappearance, the sheriff’s office said Somer’s mother was walking through her neighborhood looking for Somer when she flagged down a passing deputy and reported the 7-year-old child was missing. Somer had reportedly been walking home with her sister and friends but ran ahead of them heading toward home.

The sheriff’s office issued this description of Somer:

* 7 years old

* White female

* 3 feet, 5 inches tall

* 65 pounds

* Brown hair in pony tail

* Last seen wearing a cranberry colored jumpsuit with pink striped sleeves

Anyone with information is asked to call the Clay County Sheriff’s Office as (904)264-6512. UPDATE: The phone number of Clay County Sheriff’s Office has been updated to 1-877-227-6911

Authorities are searching for 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson, who disappeared shortly after being released by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks to Mitrice’s parents and the family’s attorney about the investigation.

In the early hours of June 2, 2007, Lilly Aramburo left her boyfriend’s apartment, never to be seen again. As her family and friends have told us, she would never leave her baby son behind on her own free will.

Now, they have turned to America’s Most Wanted for help.

Lilly is described as friendly and always willing to listen and help a friend in need. A blog has been started, called Justice in Miami, to raise awareness about her case.

At 22, she was not without problems. She struggled with drugs, and may have found herself in a situation where people she knew did her harm.

Private Eye Working To Find Lilly

Lilly’s friends are desperate for answers in her disappearance.

The quiet residential street in Miami where she lived turned different at night, and people are afraid to talk about what they see and what they know.

Law enforcement sources say they know the last place she was seen alive, a private home on the street.

Those who love her have great concerns about her not being alive when she left that house.

A South Florida private investigator, Joe Carrillo, has received some great tips that have been passed on to Miami law enforcement.

Those that know Lilly think some people might be afraid to come forward. Lilly’s loved ones want to know what may have been done to her.

Host Scott Davis of The Missing TV introduces you to the cases of The Martinez family out of Reno, NV and the Ernst Family out of Ardmore, OK. Also he will revisit the Dr. Stacy Safety Segment where Ben and Karen Gibson will demonstrate backpack safety.

More about the Martinez children abduction:

Ivan, Jakelyn, Megan, and Tyson were allegedly abducted by their mother, Claire Tourand. www.missingkids.com. An FBI Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrant was issued for the abductor on July 14, 2009. They may travel to Mexico. They may be traveling in a white 1998 Mercury Sable with Nevada license plates 369-SDH.

Joseph and Nicole were allegedly abducted by their mother, Natalya Ernst, on May 19, 2008. An FBI International Parental Kidnapping warrant was issued for Natalya on February 18, 2009. They are believed to be in Russia. Natalya may use the alias first name Natasha and the alias last name Sopova.

About MyStory:
AMW gets hundreds of letters each month from viewers who are seeking justice. Often, AMW is their last hope and the letter they send us might be the most important they have ever written. Like each writer, every My Story is different. Yet they all share a common bond — the search for justice.

Funded by the U.S. Justice Department, it is available, free of charge, to law enforcement and the public, at www.namus.gov.

“This has the potential to truly revolutionize the handling of cases of missing persons and unidentified remains,” said Todd Matthews, the Southeast regional director for NamUs. “It is a huge step forward for investigators, and it gives the families and friends of missing persons a chance to become part of the process of finding their loved one.”

Victims’ families, police agencies, medical examiners, coroners and the general public can search for possible matches between missing persons and unidentified decedents.

To keep ongoing investigations secure, part of NamUs is set aside for law enforcement access only, so investigators can post and share information or details they do not wish made public, Matthews said.

NamUs has two databases: One has information about unidentified bodies, entered from medical examiners and coroners. It can be searched using characteristics such as sex, race, tattoos or other distinct body features, and dental information. The other contains information on missing persons cases.

Law enforcement users will have the ability to automatically cross-reference the two databases, reducing the time it takes an investigator to search them. If a close match is found, the investigator can turn to forensic services to conduct further testing, such as a dental records check or a DNA test.

NamUs only began taking records in January and is still in the growing stages. While the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, or NCIC, will have around 100,000 missing persons cases listed as “active” at any given time, NamUs currently has 1,828 such cases, plus cases of 5,329 unidentified human bodies, according to Justice Department spokeswoman Sheila Jerusalem. But 43 states and 225 law enforcement agencies have started participating, and more are expected to enroll as they become aware of the program, she said.

The News Sentinel asked the Justice Department when and if current cases in the NCIC database would be added to the NamUs system, but that information was not provided in time for inclusion in this series.

Karen, a homemaker and mother of two from Indiana, has long had trouble falling asleep. About five years ago, to help herself wind down, she started going through missing persons sites on the Web, trying to match a person who had vanished with a John or Jane Doe whose remains had been found but whose name still remained a mystery.

When she started her informal cure for insomnia, Karen had to switch back and forth between an array of various sites – those that had information on missing persons, and those that had information on unidentified remains.

As of this year, Karen didn’t have to switch back and forth anymore. The National Forensic Science Technology Center, which is located in Largo, launched the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs. It contains two databases – one for unidentified remains and one for missing persons – and search engines the general public can use to find a match.

Last month, Karen got a hit on the system, according to officials with the technology center.

In the unidentified remains database, she spotted a sketch of a facial reconstruction performed after a woman’s skeletal remains turned up some five years ago, outside Albuquerque, N.M.

Then she started going through the missing persons database and matched the sketch with the photograph of Sonia Lente, a 44-year-old Native American, who was last seen in the company of a man two years earlier, leaving a bar within city limits.

NamUs, which costs a little more than $4 million and is funded by the National Institute of Justice, solves a few problems, said Kevin Lothridge, chief executive officer for the technology center.

Perhaps most importantly, it centralizes into a single national database information that typically has been scattered among different states and jurisdictions. That allowed a cyber sleuth like Karen to make a match in a missing persons case on the other side of the country.

It is also what Lothridge calls “public addressable,” which means members of the public can access the database and conduct searches, much in the same way they do on Google or Craigslist. Historically, only law enforcement agencies had access to crime-solving databases, and with some databases that is still the case, such as those containing fingerprints and DNA.

Anyone who wants to create a profile of a loved one on NamUs can do so, and the information entered can be anything that identifies someone – a family photograph, a picture of a tattoo, the serial number on a breast implant, dental records, prosthetic devices, jewelry or clothing. The better the information, the stronger the strength of the missing person’s profile, he said.

For example, Jennifer Kesse – who was abducted in Orlando in 2006 and hasn’t been seen since — has an exceptionally strong missing person’s profile, with a score of 5, the highest attainable.

On it her father has noted her eye color can change from green to blue, depending on the kind of contact lenses she is wearing, and that she has a tattoo of a four-leaf clover on her left hip at the panty line. Her profile also has her dental records and notes her DNA is available.

A missing person’s profile is not automatically posted; rather, it is flagged. Then one of the program’s seven regional administrators the country can check with the law enforcement agency handling the missing person’s case to make sure the profile is legitimate, Lothridge said. Once that step is taken, the profile goes online.

Once it is online, a family member – or a cyber sleuth like Karen – can start conducting searches on the site. If, for instance, a mother knows her daughter had a tattoo of a clover leaf on the small of her back, she can conduct a query to see if anyone has turned up who had the same type of tattoo.

“No one wants to find them more than a family member,” said Billy Young, the NamUs coordinator.

If the family member or cyber sleuth thinks he or she has a match, she can then call the regional administrator or the appropriate law enforcement agency and suggest they take the next step – take a look at fingerprints or DNA, if they are available, to see if the presumed match can be corroborated, Lothridge said.

NamUs has odontologists throughout the country to compare dental records. If the DNA of a loved one isn’t immediately available, NamUs will work to get it, perhaps off the missing person’s toothbrush, through an arrangement with the University of North Texas. The university sends kits to the law enforcement agency in charge of the missing person’s case, and an investigator or technician tries to get a DNA sample for the database.

Karen got her match through hardcore sleuthing, but this month NamUs started a program that automatically cross-references information from the missing persons database with information in the unidentified remains database.

The hope is that, as time goes on, more and more cases involving missing persons and unidentified remains will be entered into NamUs. In the United States, there are an estimated 100,000 active missing cases, and more than 40,000 cases involving unidentified remains, according to the technology center.

By comparison, there were only 4,951 unidentified persons entered into NamUs as of May, 2009, and only 1,497 missing persons.

Sunday May 31st, the South Florida community is invited to attend a candlelight vigil and silent march in memory of Lilly Aramburo, a young mother missing from Miami since 2007. Beginning at 6pm (Eastern time), Lilly Aramburo’s mother, Lucely will lead the crowd in a Justice for Lilly silent march in front of the house it is believed Lily may have lost her life.

The purpose of the silent demonstration is to grab the public’s attention for a short time on the two year anniversary of Lilly’s disappearance to make everyone aware that Lilly is still missing, and we are still looking for answers. There are many missing persons in South Florida and thousands across the country. We are remembering them and their families on this occasion. Anyone with a missing loved one is urged to attend the event and bring a photo or flyer to share.

What: Justice for Lily Candlelight Vigil and Silent March
When: Sunday May 31st at 6pm
Where: 3440 Percival Ave Coconut Grove, FL 33133 Map
Why: It’s been exactly 2 years since Lilly vanished. We need to find Lilly and we need the person(s) responsible to be brought to justice!

Family and friends will peacefully deliver a powerful message to Miami Dade Police Department that Lilly deserves justice, she deserves to be found. Lilly has not been forgotten by her family and friends and she shouldn’t be forgotten by the community where she lived. We’d like to see Miami Dade Police take meaningful action. Please show your support by joining Lilly’s family and friends as we hit the streets to demand JUSTICE FOR LILLY!

I realize few of you live in the Miami area, if you are unable to be there in person, we ask you to have Lilly in your thoughts and prayers while the vigil is going on. Please join us in spirit by lighting a candle for Lily (where ever you are). But to those who live in South Florida, we’d love the chance to see you in person to thank you for your support and commitment to finding Lilly these past 2 years. Although it will be a very hard day for all of us, spending it together will help us heal in a small way.

Visitors are welcome to bring a candle to light for Lilly but it is not required. Please RSVP via Facebook or if you’re on Twitter, you can RSVP here:

The Disappearance of South Florida mother, Lucely “Lily” Aramburo has left her family and friends devastated. Although it’s been almost 2 years, since she’s been gone, she is not forgotten. Lilly was a very good friend. I miss her dearly.

Lilly Aramburo was 23 when she disappeared in June 2007. She was last seen leaving her boyfriend’s condo, located in the Kendall area of Miami, Florida. Lilly’s boyfriend called her family the next evening at 2am after reporting her missing to Miami Dade Police. There are a lot of questions and very few answers. Needless to say, Lilly’s case remains unsolved.

A candlelight vigil and silent march is being planned for the 2nd year anniversary of Lilly’s disappearance. It will take place at the end of May in Coconut Grove, Florida. I will keep you updated as more info becomes available.

If you live in the South Florida area, consider showing your support by attending the vigil and silent march. If you use Facebook, please RSVP here.

The Justice Department has unveiled a computer database that will help families locate the bodies of lost loved ones. Families, law enforcement agencies, medical examiners and coroners, victim advocates, and the general public are encouraged to register their missing loved ones with The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), the first national repository for missing persons and unidentified decedent records.

Read more about NamUs in the article below by CBS’ Erin Moriarty called “Justice Dept. Service Is Designed To Help Relatives Find Missing Loved Ones”

Who would you turn to if your loved one went missing? The Police? The mainstream media? If that was your answer you have a rude awakening coming to you. Police departments are either way too understaffed, un-educated or just focusing on high profile cases. If your missing loved one was over the age of 18, police may say they have every right to “disappear”. And the media, you can forget about it, unless your loved one falls into a certain category like Caylee Anthony or Natalie Hollaway, then you’re probably not going to have any luck getting any attention or help from them.

Thankfully, for 15 years there has been the National Center for Missing Adults. The NCMA is a division of the Nation’s Missing Children Organization, Inc. (NMCO) a 501c(3) non-profit organization, formally established after the passage of Kristen’s Law (H.R. 2780) by the United States Congress on October 26th, 2000. The NCMA operates as the national clearinghouse for missing adults, providing services and coordination between various government agencies, law enforcement, media, and families of missing adults. NCMA also maintains a national database of thousands of missing adults determined to be “endangered” or otherwise at-risk in the US. But not for long.

Since 2005, NCMA has been waiting for Congress to reauthorize Kristen’s Act to provide the funding so crucially needed to continue its work. Due to its failure, the country’s only national clearinghouse and missing adult database is in such extreme distress some believe only a miracle can save it.NCMA founder, Kym Pasqualini and her small staff of less than 5 volunteers, have kept the agency alive despite many difficulties including critical shortage and loss of funding, in 2006 they were

and going 2 years without pay and mounting debt, in order to continue providing services to those in need. Time is dangerously close to running out for NCMA. To make matters even graver still, Kym (a single mother) is facing eviction.

This doesn’t seem right to me. Not for anyone but especially not for Kym and the National Center for Missing Adults! The loss of the NCMA would mean no more support for families of the missing!

How can this happen?

Days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast region, Bureau of Justice Assistance; United States Department of Justice (DOJ) requested the immediate assistance of the National Center for Missing Adults. In the weeks following, NCMA received 13,502 reports related to Hurricane Katrina and Rita, in addition to cases normally registered with the agency involving missing adults who are determined by the investigating law enforcement agency to be “at risk” due to diminished mental capacity, physical disability, medical conditions, suspected foul play or suspicious circumstances of the disappearance. NCMA resolved 99.8% of all reports with costs to the agency in excess of $250,000 and depleted the agency’s non-federal reserve of funds. NCMA has only received $50,000 to cover the work they did at the request of the Dept. of Justice. The DOJ still hasn’t released the funds owed to the NCMA for their work related to Hurricane Katrina.

We cannot allow this valuable resource to die.

I feel strongly about this as my own friend, Lily Aramburo, went missing and has been gone for almost 2 years now. Following Lily’s disappearance, I contacted NCMA. Tanya, the volunteer who assisted us, was working from home on these cases because of the agency’s funding situation. Despite these obstacles, she was comforting, professional and understanding. She was steadfast in her efforts contacting law enforcement in order to get Lilly’s case confirmed and didn’t stop until she finally succeeded. I’ve had the privilege of working with Kym and her faithful team of volunteers. I admire them for their selfless efforts on behalf of our missing loved ones and the families who are left behind, searching for them.

My goal is to show Kym that people do care, we recognize their work is valuable. The NCMA doesn’t need to wait for a MIRACLE…

It’s within our power to save the National Center for Missing Adults. I urge you to stand with me and help in any way you possibly can. What can you do to help, you ask?

First and foremost they need money! Click on the FirstGiving fundraising widget below and visit my NCMA Fundraising Page Tax-deductible donations can be made online safely and securely through FirstGiving.

The NCMA accepts donations on their website as well. You can give as little as $5 using Google Checkout. Or if you prefer to send a check directly to NCMA, please mail to:

National Center for Missing Adults
PO Box 6389
Glendale, AZ 85312 US

If you commit to giving just $5 (the cost of a Starbucks coffee) we would be that much closer to achieving the goal.

Follow the NCMA! Share this post and ask your friends and followers to retweet it (Join the NCMA RT RALLY starting NOW!).

Are you on Facebook, Myspace, Ning, or other social networking sites?

On Facebook, support the NCMA by setting your status to display a short message with a link to this post. Join the NCMA Facebook Group and invite everyone you know. Use your social networks to spread the word!
You can get your very own fundraising widget or badge to add on your profile and encourage others to do the same.

Don’t forget to bookmark, Stumble and share this post far and wide! RT on Twitter! Link to post! Get the widget, get the badge, share on your social networks and most importantly, GIVE GENEROUSLY & SPREAD THE WORD!

Believe or not, in the US, there is no National Protocol for law enforcement to follow in missing person cases. If we did, we probably wouldn’t have so many unidentified persons and the likelihood of finding missing people would be much improved. Not only that but police would be forced to follow the same guidelines throughout the country. In my opinion, we should be treating every missing person case as a homicide until we learn otherwise. Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies don’t always do the right thing and often times families are forced to deal with bureaucracy and red tape. Many fail to submit fingerprints, dental records, or DNA for the missing person. This can be prevented.

This idea is currently in 4th Place in Criminal Justice and needs 67 more votes to make it into the second round!

As Advocate for missing mother and friend, Lilly Aramburo, who vent missing from Miami, FL 6/1/07, I support this legislation wholeheartedly and thank everyone involved, including all who support it by voting and blogging about it and sharing it across the internet. Thank you!! I know what it’s like to fight every step of the way with detectives and law enforcement to get anything done. Every body knows how critical the first 24-48 hours are in solving a missing persons case, but in Lilly’s case, nothing was done because the detective assigned to her case was on vacation! Needless to say, Lilly’s case went cold fast. And the person/people who took her life, remain free with the ability to prey on someone else’s loved one.

This is just our experience. Countless families are forced to suffer needless injustice, red tape and even racism at the hands of law enforcement . I believe it can be prevented by this legislation and many cases could be solved. We must take action now.

Please add your voice and support missing & unidentified persons and their families in the US.

“Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.” -Lamartine

We depend on social networking sites to assist in raising awareness for Lilly Aramburo and missing people. If you have a loved one that’s missing, or if you’d like to help the cause, please join this Missing Persons group on Flickr. The group is focused on missing persons in the United States. Every member is encouraged to upload pictures of missing loved ones (as long as they disappeared within the US). This is a good idea for several aspects. Many people use Flickr and it’s a very effective way of raising awareness for the missing.

Please join us in the Missing Persons Friendfeed Room. Members post links to pictures, articles, anything that has to do with missing people (Amber Alerts, abductions, kidnapping, runaways, etc). If you’re a social media lover, be sure to join us on various sites across the web like Care2.com and Mixx.com. Please add Missing Lilly Aramburo as a friend on myspace and join her cause on Facebook. These are just a few things you can do to help.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Lilly (above). It’s how I remember my friend. Smiling, laughing, enjoying LIFE. Since Lilly’s disappearance, on June 1, 2007, life has not been the same. Lily’s mother lives in constant agony, waiting for news about her daughter. It’s not easy having to raise her grandson under such difficult circumstances . With each day, Lilly’s son (now 2 years old) slowly loses precious memories of his mother. He was only 9 months old, last time he was held in her warm and loving embrace. With every new picture, sadness tends to overcome me. And all I’m left with are questions. After all this time, I believe her little boy and family, deserve answers. She absolutely did NOT willingly walk away from her son and her life. She’d never allow so much time to pass without a phone call or checking in on her son. Someone took her from us. And many of us will not rest until she is brought back home and justice is served for Lilly Aramburo.

You can help by making a quick phone call to the US Attorney’s Office at 305-530-7679. It appears the US Attorneys office are the only ones who can properly investigate this case. Also, please continue sending emails to Governor Charlie Crist and media. It makes no sense that after all this time, not ONE article has been written about Lilly’s case in local newspapers like The Miami Herald or her picture displayed by local news channels. It’s not due to lack of effort, I testify to that.

Someone out there knows what happened to Lilly. I urge you to contact the detective or call the tip line at 305-471-TIPS. You can remain anonymous if need be. Just pick up the phone and make the phone call, please! No matter how small a detail, no matter how silly you think it may be, your information could help solve this mystery. It’s been hell for Lilly’s family and friends. Please help bring Lilly back home. Immediately contact MDPD at 305-418-7245 or call the tip line at 305-471-TIPS, if you know anything at all about Lilly Aramburo’s disappearance.

Here’s a direct statement to her perpetrator, YOUR CONSCIOUS MUST BE KILLING YOU!

If you live in or around Allegan County, please keep your eyes open for this 77 year old missing man, Marshall Kenyon. Anyone with information about Marshall Kenyon’s whereabouts is asked to contact Allegan County Central Dispatch at 269-673-3899.

ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - The Allegan County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help in locating a missing person.

Marshall Boyd Kenyon is a 77-year-old male who suffers from mild dementia/Alzheimers and is in generally poor health. Marshall was last seen on Monday, December 1st around 2:15 pm, leaving his home in Plainwell, Michigan.

Marshall was headed out to get mail and cigars in the Plainwell area. Marshall was driving a gray and tan 2003 Buick Century with a Michigan plate ‘BGF 1822.’ Marshall was last seen wearing a red and black Carhart jacket, stocking cap, jeans and boots. Marshall also wears glasses.

Anyone with information about Marshall Kenyon’s whereabouts is asked to contact Allegan County Central Dispatch at 269-673-3899.

Francisco Cuevas, age 47, was last seen on Saturday, November 3, 2007 in Coral Springs, Florida, at his place of employment and has not been or heard from since. Francisco was driving a 2004 Jeep Cherokee, black, 4 door, License plate � FL PYROIND.

I just came upon this article in the Miami Herald and wanted to share it with you. I can’t imagine the suffering this little girl’s family has had to endure. If anyone knows anything about the 1987 murder of 3-year-old Julie Magliulo in North Lauderdale, please do the right thing and contact the FBI at 1-800-225-5324.

Thankfully, a few media outlets picked up Heather’s story. The Miami Herald wrote a good article about it on today’s paper. The writer, David Ovalle, included very helpful information about the Kid Finders Network. As he writes:

“The billboard is being provided to North Miami Beach police by the Kid Finders Ntework, a West Palm Beach-based volunteer organization run by Sherri and Dennis Milstead. Kid Finders, which relies on donations, provides mobile billboards aimed at finding missing young people. The price of Riggio’s mobile billboard — the printing of the banner and trailer upkeep — is about $3,000, footed so far by the Milsteads. ”We work off donations and we’re still trying to get sponsors,” Sherri Milstead said.“We’re hanging by a shoestring.”

Here’s another article and video about Heather on CBS4. And another one on WSVN including video, as well. You can find more information about Heather Riggio’s case by doing a Google search. There’s over 26,000 pages of search results.

This from Heather’s sister’s Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/heathersmissing “We want as many people as possible to see her picture and know her story…But we need help…we need people to donate gas money and driving time to keep the billboard running…PLEASE contact Sherry @ 561-333-2779 if you can do anything..anything at all helps..thanks a lot, Lisa”. As you can see that Heather’s family is torn up and suffering dearly for the return of their precious “Kitty”. See more picture of Heather here. If you have any information, anything at all, please contact North Miami Beach Police at 305-949-5500.

This morning I attended a Press Conference held by the North Miami Beach Police and Kid Finders Network for missing person, Heather “Kitty” Riggio. I was invited by Sherri Milstead, the Executive Director of Kid Finders Network. She learned about Lilly’s case and contacted me earlier in the week.

Kid Finders Network is a nonprofit organization which provides mobile billboards to families, organizations and Law Agencies in search of Missing Children and Missing Persons. They have a mobile billboard (pictured above) with Heather’s information and picture on it. It will stay at the police station in North Miami Beach until Monday. After that it will go to the area where Heather was last seen at in Homestead. It will cruise the area, increasing the odds of someone calling with an important tip. The drivers are trained in taking tips, too. You can see my entire set of pictures of the press conference and the mobile billboard by clicking the link under the picture.

Lilly’s mom and I could not contain our tears as we watched the press conference taking place. You can’t help but feel overwhelmed with compassion for families experiencing the same suffering. It was heartbreaking. But at the same time, I saw the dedication and all the effort put forth by the detectives from North Miami Beach Police Department. What a blessing for Heather’s family. I’ve been following her case and from the start, these detectives have done such a great job. I admire and commend them for their commitment and efforts to find Heather. They were able to get her story featured on America’s Most Wanted.

Here is the official press release from the North Miami Beach Police Department. They have it posted on their website:

Narrative: Kid Finders Network will be assisting us with a missing person case where a young female, Heather Riggio, went missing on May 6, 2007 and the public’s help is paramount to helping us find her or find out what happened to her as foul play may be involved. Kid Finders Network is providing an innovative way to assist law enforcement with the recovery of missing persons by providing a mobile billboard that will feature vital information such as photographs of the victim, the areas she frequented, etc. which will be deployed in the area Heather was last seen.

Kid Finders will be at the North Miami Beach Police Department on Friday, July 11th at 11:00 AM with the billboard provided for this case. Representatives from Kid Finders Network as well as NMB Chief Rafael P. Hernandez, Jr. and Lead Case Detective Rich Rand will be present to speak about the case and unveil the highly effective and innovative billboard that will profile this case.